Don’t underestimate the value of a good night’s sleep. A lack of sleep can cost you dearly, not just personally from a productive and health point of view, but also in business and from an economic point of view.
When you find yourself being argumentative and angry over the littlest of things, whether it’s with your spouse, your kids or work colleges, then ask yourself, “how much sleep have I had?”
If the answer is less than 7 hours, and this has been consistent, then you may find that lack of sleep is where the problem is.
Lack of sleep will affect your ability to PERFORM
Lack of sleep will affect your HEALTH
Lack of sleep will affect your RELATIONSHIPS
When your personal productivity, health and relationships are suffering due to lack of sleep, this will inevitable affect your business.
No one can perform optimally when they’re tired. Mistakes occur, things get forgotten and accidents can happen.
There is a human cost as well as a financial cost, which can be enormous.
Evidence of this can be seen from some of the biggest disasters that have occurred globally, were lack of sleep attributed to the disaster.
For example, the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1996 estimate cost $235 billion, the Exxon Valdez in 1989 estimated cost over $7 billion and the 1986 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger cost $3.2 billion.
Sleep deprivation leads people to reach bad decisions and then stick with them, even when they are clearly wrong, according to a study published by Britain's top sleep researchers, Jim Horne of Loughborough University's Sleep Research Laboratory and Yvonne Harrison of Liverpool John Moores University. (1)
The report, ‘The Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Decision Making’ claims that tired people are far less capable of handling the unexpected than was thought. It blames sleeplessness and long shifts for 'human errors' resulting in many of the disasters that we’ve seen.
The message is clear, if you’re tired then get some sleep.
But sometimes that is easier said than done. How many times have you gone to bed early, and still woken up tired?
There’s more to sleep than just closing your eyes and there are many things that can upset the quality of your sleep. And quality of sleep is vital.
There are many things that can affect how well you sleep, these are what prevent you from getting into the deep sleep stage, followed by the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep that your body and brain need to heal and rejuvenate on a nightly basis.
It’s recommended that adults get 7-9 hours of good sleep each night, and yet an estimated 45% of Australians having poor sleep patterns.
Australian research released in 2018, found one-in-three people suffer, “social jet lag” as a result of poor sleep behaviours.
“That’s a large chunk of our population whose body clocks are out of alignment, a problem known to negatively impact health and wellbeing,” said Professor Robert Adams, the study’s lead researcher and sleep specialist with the University of Adelaide.
Some of the key things that affect the quality of your sleep can include:
There are some scientifically proven ways help you improve the quality of your sleep.
How many of the list below do you currently do?
And how many more could you do?
Lack of sleep has proven time and time again to be detrimental to your personal productivity, your health, your relationships and for business and the economy.
Assess your own life today and decide whether you need to get more sleep or improve the quality of your sleep.
And, if you need help, there are plenty of specialist that can assist you, whether that be your local GP, Counsellor or Therapist.
Don’t sleep on this one, get help today if you need it.
Citation (1)
Harrison, Y., & Horne, J. A. (2000). The impact of sleep deprivation on decision making: A review. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6(3), 236-249.
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